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box joint separating

i have the joints on my brood box separating; just the one lower joint on one side so far. this time of year I don't usually want to disturb the bees much. any advice?

i was just thinking of filling it in with sealer, and hoping for the best until spring swarm management time. I had a couple boxes with the same effect and I just hammerd them back in with some glue; but there were no bees in them.

Re: box joint separating

or ... Take a cordless drill out to your hive. Drill a few guide holes on your loose joints with a 1/8" drill bit. Use 1 1/4" or 1 1/2" drywall screws which should draw the joint back together. Just a slight disturbance to the bees, but a permanent fix.

Re: box joint separating

If you can force some glue into the joint before Mike’s suggestion it would be a permanent fix. It does not have to be fancy, spread the joint (scrap wedge or chisel), put a bead of glue on it, push in with finger, repeat. Take the pilot holes pretty shallow if you are using a 1/8” pilot bit for drywall screws. Short deck screws are designed for the outdoors and the square heads are the greatest thing they have invented in the last 10 yrs.

“Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up” Alfred Pennyworth Batman Begins (2005)

Re: box joint separating

A hint for future box assembly:

Put the boxes together so that the curve of the rings is toward the inside of the box on all four sides, reguardless of which way the parts are currently warped. That way, if the wood shrinks, it will pull the top and bottom tighter rather than spreading them apart. Wood shrinks along the rings more than across the rings, which is why it cups.

Assembled that way and properly nailed or screwed it's very unlikely to separate.

You also must clamp them flat when assembling, either by some external means or by what order you install the nails. Screws work a bit better than nails at holding them against wood movements, but they can fail too.